North Korea's warnings to Australia are becoming increasingly ominous

North Korea has sent a scathing letter to the Australian Parliament criticising US president Donald Trump and pleading with Australia to abandon its alliance with the US.

“If Trump thinks that he would bring the DPRK, a nuclear power, to its knees through nuclear war threat, it will be a big miscalculation and an expression of ignorance,” the letter reads.

“Foreign Affairs Committee of the DPRK SPA takes this opportunity to express belief that the parliaments of different countries loving independence, peace and justice will fully discharge their due mission and duty in realising the desire of mankind for international justice and peace with sharp vigilance against the heinous and reckless moves of the Trump administration trying to drive the world into a horrible nuclear disaster.”

Australia’s foreign minister Julie Bishop told Fairfax Media the “very unusual” letter, written by North Korea’s Foreign Affairs Committee of the DPRK Supreme People’s Assembly, was a clear sign that diplomatic pressure and economic sanctions on North Korea were working, and said, “They are feeling desperate, feeling isolated, trying to demonise the US, trying to divide the international community.”

North Korean soldiers (rear) watch as Australia’s Foreign Minister Julie Bishop (L) stands on the southern side of the military demarcation line between North and South Korea on October 12, 2017. Photo: Ed Jones/ AFP/ Getty Images.

The letter, addressed to “the parliaments of different countries”, was sent Australia’s Indonesian embassy on Sunday, via North Korea’s embassy in Jakarta.

Bishop said it is the first time any Australian foreign minister has received such a letter from North Korea, and unusual that it was sent from the Foreign Affairs committee rather than state news agency KCNA.

North Korea has previously warned Australia and other Western allies against following the US.

Last week North Korea said Australia would face “disaster” if it continues to side with the US and forces the North to end its nuclear missile program and relinquish its weapons, specifically mentioning Bishop, who had just visited Seoul and pledged Australia’s support for South Korea.

Here’s the letter in full.

Open Letter to Parliaments of Different Countries

The Foreign Affairs Committee of the DPRK Supreme People’s Assembly sent an open letter to parliaments of different countries on Sunday.

The letter noted that Trump, president of the U.S. styling itself the “supremepower”, denied the existence of the DPRK, a dignified sovereign state, and spit out ignorant remarks of “total destruction” at the UN General Assembly, stunning the world public.

The Foreign Affairs Committee of the DPRK Supreme People’s Assembly, the basic mission of which is to promote friendly and cooperative relations with the parliaments and peace-loving people of countries around the world, proceeding from the foreign policy of the Workers Party of Korea based on the ideas of independence, peace and friendship, bitterly condemns the Reckless remarks of Trump as an intolerable insult to the Korean people, a declaration of war against the DPRK and a grave threat to global peace, the letter said, adding:

From the first day of his office Trump has engaged himself in high-handed and arbitrary practice, scrapping international laws and agreements incurring his displeasure on the “U.S.-first principle”, the height of American way of thinking that is best if U.S. is well-off at the expense of the whole world.

The U.S. brought to their knees those countries devoid of principal, narrow-minded and selfish countries seeking after their interests with its nuclear stick and force and then cooked up the illegal “sanctions resolution” against the DPRK to deny the elementary right to existence of the Korean people and check their normal economic development in breach of the violation UN Charter by abusing the UN Security Council. This is an intensive act of the revelation of the “U.S.-first principle”.

Trump threatened to totally destroy the DPRK, a dignified independent and sovereign state and nuclear power. It is an extreme act of threatening to totally destroy the whole world.

If Trump thinks he would bring the DPRK, a nuclear power, to its knees through nuclear war threat, it will be a big miscalculation and an expression of ignorance.

The DPRK has emerged as a full-fledged nuclear power which has a strong nuclear arsenal and various kinds of nuclear delivery means made by dint of self-reliance and self-development. The real foe of its nuclear force is a nuclear war itself.

Foreign Affairs Committee of the DPRK SPA takes this opportunity to express belief that the parliaments of different countries loving independence, peace and justice will fully discharge their due mission and duty in realising the desire of mankind for international justice and peace with sharp vigilance against the heinous and reckless moves of the Trump administration trying to drive the world into a horrible nuclear disaster.